JOURNAL OF MAINR ORNITHOI.OGICAT, SOCIRTV. 3 1 



the nest, due to the preenino- of the young birds. This, of course, 

 is unavoidable. 



July 9th, 190S, attracted l)y the chirps of the Nashville, I found, 

 by patient waiting, a beautiful little nest in the side of a knoll, cov- 

 ered with hair-cap moss and strewn with pine needles. The dainty 

 cradle was made of pine needles lined with the fruit stems of hair- 

 cap moss. It was likewise roofed by the overhanging hair-cap 

 moss. I had to bend down to see the four eggs. The knoll was 

 surrounded by a copse of firs. As usual, the nest was located 

 in a growth of gray birches, adjoining evergreen timber, not far 

 from a swamp. The birds seem to feed on the birches chiefly. 

 The spot was far from inhabited dwellings. When flushed from 

 the nest, the bird trailed a pretended broken wing along the ground 

 for a yard or so, flew to the cover of some low saplings, and 

 mounted from low saplings to higher branches zigzagging to the 

 top of the birches. The bird characteristically moved farther and 

 farther away from her nest, calling chirp softly and irregularly. As 

 I was on my way home, I followed the foolish little lady for a hun- 

 dred yards or more before she became suddenly quiet and disap- 

 peared. 



July 1 6th, four little Warblers in the nest. 



Third day, eyelids open one-thirty-second of an inch in the 

 middle, the wing quills three-sixteenths of an inch long, the blue 

 spaces on the wings three-eighths of an inch deep; the feather 

 tracts indicated also on head, back and coccyx. 



Fifth day, the quills extend beyond the wings three-eighths of 

 an inch; the head is leather-like, of a walnut stain tone, and the 

 entire bird is assuming the same color in the center of the feather 

 tracts, with the interspaces burnt-orange. The birds are constantly 

 growing darker all over. I noticed particularly the eyes of the 

 birds are well open but not completely. 



Seventh day, the wing quills are all of an inch long, the pin- 

 feathers well grown, but tlie spaces between the feather tracts still 

 show . 



